A CROSS-PARTY group of councillors will urge borough chiefs to put plans for a gypsy and traveller transit site back on the table next week.

Cheshire West and Chester Council worked on plans to open a transit site at the former Foxfields pub in Ellesmere Port last year.

The move would have given police greater powers to move gypsies and travellers off unauthorised sites and onto the transit site as soon as possible – but CWAC withdrew the plans following strong opposition from neighbours.

Now, four CWAC members who have reviewed the way the authority handles unauthorised encampments will call on the cabinet to put the wheels back in motion for a transit site and produce a timetable for its delivery by December.

Labour members Cllr Val Armstrong and Cllr Carol Gahan worked with Conservatives Cllr Margaret Parker and Cllr Lynn Gibbon in a task group from last November.

In a report of their findings, the group says: “Unauthorised encampments can cause numerous issues for residents and businesses and the task group was keen to learn how the council and partner agencies respond to such encampments.

“The task group is keen to ensure that the findings and recommendations from this review contribute to improvements in how the council manages any unauthorised encampments in the future.”

CWAC currently has no transit site, meaning it requires court orders to force gypsies and travellers to leave unauthorised encampments – a process which can be slow and costly.

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Once a borough has a transit site, police can close unauthorised encampments immediately, and any gypsies and travellers who refuse to move would be forced to leave the borough and cannot return for three to six months.

The task group considered the impact of unauthorised encampments on communities, and how they are dealt with by police, the council and the Cheshire and Warrington Traveller Team.

They visited Halton’s transit site, which has been opened since February 2009, where the number of unauthorised encampments fell from 83 in 2005 to just three from January 1 to July 19, 2019.

In contrast, Cheshire West was hit by 82 unauthorised encampments last year, 76 in 2017 and 73 in 2016, while there were 25 between January 1 and July 19, 2019.

The councillors also talked to Irish Community Care – a gypsy and traveller support group – about the health and educational needs of those communities.

In a report which will be presented to CWAC’s people overview and scrutiny committee next Wednesday, the task group said that one of the ‘key findings’ of their work was discovering ‘the benefits of transit provision as a particularly effective way to manage unauthorised encampments’.

It said: “Transit sites are permanent sites intended for temporary use by residents. The length of stay generally varies between 28 days and 13 weeks.

“A transit site would be income generating as families would pay rent to stay as well as paying for electricity.

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“This would allow families to access local services including health, education and Irish Community Care.”

As well as setting the wheels in motion for a transit site, the group is also calling on CWAC to raise awareness of the needs of gypsies and travellers among staff and residents, and set up an officer working group in January 2020 to respond to unauthorised encampments.